This invention relates generally to stapling, and more particularly to devices which extract or remove staples.
Staple removers are commonly used in the furniture upholstering industry. Upholstery material is generally held in place on furniture by staples which are driven through the material into the wood frame of the furniture by a staple gun. In some cases, six hundred or more staples may be used to affix the upholstery material to the frame of, for example, a large davenport.
When furniture upholstery wears or becomes damaged, it is necessary to remove the staples and old upholstery in order to be able to re-upholster the furniture. Much time and energy is spent in removing the numerous staples which have been driven into the wood frame. Such staples are commonly removed by use of a hand tool such as a claw hammer or screwdriver. Other devices specifically designed for removing staples from upholstery are also used, such as the #711 staple remover provided by C. S. Osborne & Company, 121 Jersey Street, Harrison, N.J. 07029, and the staple removers shown in U.S. Pats. Nos. 4,293,119 to Diederichs, 4,040,556 to Dahle, and 3,563,513 to Rubin. All such tools have the drawback that they are manually operated, requiring much human energy to pry the staples out of the wood frame and upholstery.
Powered staple removers have been developed, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,245,817 to Peoples. The device there disclosed is a pneumatically driven, trigger actuated, plier-like extractor. To actuate the device, a trigger is pressed which causes a jawed grabber bar assembly to move downward to compress or penetrate the upholstery material surrounding a staple. Thereafter, a valve opens which causes the jaws to close beneath the staple. Then, another valve opens, which causes the grabber assembly to be pulled upward, thereby removing the staple from the wood frame and upholstery. Such a device is bulky, costly to manufacture due to the complex valving, and slow in operation due to the sequenced movements of the various components.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a powered staple removing apparatus which is compact, simple in its operation, yet provides enough force to remove a staple from a piece of upholstered furniture.